Living-History Lessons Resurrect Old Wounds

One of the most popular activities at Camp Muskingum in Carrollton,
Ohio, is a role-playing exercise in which children pretend to be
runaway slaves moving along the Underground Railroad.

But the activity at the nonprofit educational camp stirred up
controversy this month after the parents of an African-American child
who took part in the program complained that the experience left their
son feeling humiliated.

"Black people don't take slavery lightly," said Larry Goodman, whose
10-year-old stepson attended the three-day camp with his 5th grade
classmates from Brimfield Elementary School in Brimfield, Ohio. "For
any child to portray something as brutal as slavery is too much."

Mr. Goodman is among several black parents around the country who in
recent years have complained about classroom role-playing activities
that touch on the painful subject of slavery. Social studies teachers
have increasingly turned to simulations and role-playing as a way to
enliven a potentially dull subject for students, but these incidents
suggest that, when it comes to slavery, teachers may be treading a fine
line.

Since January, parents of black students in Milwaukee, Scottsdale,
Ariz., and, most recently, Torrance, Calif., all complained after their
children were asked to participate in mock slave auctions staged as
part of history lessons.

And when one of the nation's living-history museums, Colonial
Williamsburg in Virginia, put on a re-enactment of a slave auction for
the first time in 1994, the event drew picketing from local
representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"The definition of slavery teaches all you need to know about it,
and then you go on to the next thing," said Richard Anderson, the
president of the Portage County, Ohio, chapter of the NAACP, which is
near Brimfield Elementary. "There's so many people concerned with
reminding black people of where they were."

Drawing Distinctions

Teachers and experts on history education interviewed last week said
that slavery is a necessary and important topic in American history.
They disagreed, however, over the wisdom of involving children in the
kinds of role-playing that might stir up emotions on the sensitive
subject.

"It evokes a great deal of passion among people because the vestiges of
that experience are still just under the surface," said Philip Bigler,
who teaches an 11th grade humanities class at Thomas Jefferson High
School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. He asks his
students to re-enact the trial of abolitionist John Brown, rather than
have them depict slave auctions or other such events that might put
black students in an uncomfortable spotlight.

Gary B. Nash, the director of the National Center for History in the
Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he draws a
distinction between classroom simulations of slave auctions and a
simulation of the Underground Railroad.

"Within a history classroom, a re-enactment of slaves taking flight
and seeking refuge in the North by way of the Underground Railroad
could be a valuable and maybe even inspiring lesson," Mr. Nash said.
"After all, it is a liberating story."

But in Brimfield, Mr. Goodman said the Underground Railroad activity
made his stepson "feel stupid."

"One of the things that made him feel more uncomfortable is that his
school is 90 percent white, and there are three black kids in the
entire 5th grade," he said.

Brimfield Elementary, like many schools in the Akron area, has for
several years sent its 5th graders to the three-day camp program, which
is known as Nature's Classroom. In the Underground Railroad simulation,
groups of 12 to 15 students play the part of runaway slaves posing as a
traveling choir as they make their way from Tennessee to
Ohio.

Creating Empathy

Camp educators play the roles of bounty hunter, abolitionist,
sheriff, preacher, gravedigger, and merchant, whom the "slaves" meet at
six stations along the way. At one point, students huddle in a
windowless room while bounty hunters bang on the walls. At another, a
sheriff fires blanks at their feet.

"The purpose of it obviously was to create some empathy--to have an
understanding of what it's like not to have freedom," Rose Heintz, the
Brimfield Elementary principal, said. She attended the program this
year along with the 5th graders.

She said a house near the school was once a stop on the Underground
Railroad, and students routinely study slavery as part of a unit on
Ohio history in the 4th grade. Students pick up the subject again the
following year when they read about the Civil War.

School officials, nonetheless, plan to review the issue and decide
whether to continue or modify the role-playing activity.

"It was meant to be a living-history lesson," Ms. Heintz said, "and
I guess it backfired."

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.